Hello everyone!
Lots of things happened in our lives (including an incredible road trip through Europe) since I wrote last time – but it will all have to wait as I’m here today to tell you about an amazing trip to India that I embarked on recently. So if it sounds interesting, carry on reading!
It all kind of started a couple of years ago, during covid times. My friend Belinda and I were organising one of our Ubud women’s dinners. It was a regular event where we were connecting moms from our kids’ school from across the world, women of different nationalities, ages, backgrounds… We were using Belinda’s amazing conversation cards to keep the discussion away from kids/husbands/mosquitoes/mould and other overused topics of our Bali lives. I found myself seated with two exceptional women – newly arrived American artist and art teacher and long term Bali resident, entrepreneur and eco activist also from the US. The question on our table was simple – ‘What was your latest adventure?’ Not a difficult one you might think, especially for someone who lives in a cool place like Bali. Yet the three of us stayed quiet, pondering the question and our lives. We all realised that while we can think of countless recent adventures of our husbands (shipwrecks, stowaways, Mongolian steppe..) – we could not think of a single adventure that was not from 20 years ago! Yes, we do have an occasional snake in the garden but generally life in Bali is very comfortable and you do not find yourself taking too many risks as everything beautifully slips into the tropical routine. The conversation of that night stayed with me and nagged at me occasionally, keeping my eyes open to opportunities.
About a year ago, I saw really cool pics on social media of a good friend of mine. Mountains, prayer flags, waterfalls.. when I ran into him I asked him about it. It was a trip he did recently, to the northern part of India, with a friend who runs an ashram there. Planning to go again this year with his partner, they suggested I joined too – it was going to be amazing!!!!
As the dates were getting closer I had a brief look, signed up, paid deposit, got a welcome letter.. and things were rolling! When I travel without my family I always go for a yoga retreat or something along those lines. These trips are rare so I usually do quite a lot of research, choose carefully and always, always go with teachers I know well, with friends I know well.. rather conservative when I think about it! I scanned the welcome letter, there were places I had never heard of, it was all a bit unclear and vague (to my western mind) but I decided to let if flow this time. I chose to trust my friends, after all, they have done it, they have been to India millions of times, they were my comfort blanket!
So here I was, end of April, entering a plane to Delhi. Everyone else is Indian, people are loud and no one respects my (idea of) personal space. India, here I come! I had been there before but never to the north. I was so curious to see everything. It didn’t disappoint (-; from the moment I landed it was one adventure after another!
In the arrival hall I found a sim cards selling stand (or so I thought) with a huge sign “sim card for tourists”. With a big smile on my face I asked for a sim only to be told (by 4 different employees as they were trying to explain the same thing to me) that it was indeed not possible. Or it was really really hard. WTF?!? You are here selling the sim cards but not really selling the sim cards? I couldn’t get my head around it. It took ages and a lot of persistence from my side to succeed but I won my first ‘battle”. Happily getting out of the airport I was immediately approached by an officially looking taxi driver wearing a lanyard with his name, company name, and photograph. When I was sitting in the car, he asked me for an upfront payment of 4.000 rupees. Now.. it is not so much when converted but it still sounded a bit too much… after my protests he suddenly asked for only 2.000.. and that was enough for me, I didn’t fancy getting scammed! After a bit of shouting and general craziness I managed to get out with my luggage.. already sweating despite the Delhi heat being totally dry (-: Finally I got into an ‘official’ cab and the trip to my hotel was 400 rupees. Feeling exceedingly smug I was ready for more adventures!
My stay in Delhi was short and sweet especially thanks to my Indian friend Ash, who recommended the best hotel, the most delicious food and some amazing shops. Exquisitely dressed women, countless children begging on the streets, crazy traffic (crossing the road was an adventure in itself), books being sold at every corner.. I’d definitely like to spend more time there!
Next day I took a choppy flight further north to Dehradun in Uttarkhand state. Taxi (no price negotiation necessary this time) took me to the ashram near Haridwar where the retreat was to start and end and I joined my friends Louisa and Nikhil. The ashram was located in a beautiful peaceful spot on the edge of a tiger reserve, close to the meandering flow of river Ganges. I met the course leader Ganga, his sister Mandakini who runs the ashram, and the remaining participants. We were slowly easing into the ashram life with it’s early morning (4 am) and evening chanting, evening walks to the river bank, bathing in the holy river, yoga classes and the silent dinners. It was like a dream! There was also no toilet paper and the heat was excruciating. The retreat had officially started with a powerful Agni Hotra (fire ceremony) and I finally realised that this was no “ordinary” trip. We were to follow the holy river upstream, visiting the most important sacred temples and getting closer to the majestic Himalayas.
Our first trip took us to Rishikesh, (the only place from our welcome letter I have actually heard of prior to coming). After a beautiful morning hike to a stunning waterfall we entered the city – crowds (of people, cows, monkeys..), dust, temples and ashrams at every corner.! Also last “western” style cafes for a while and a few foreigners in the streets. An obligatory dip in the holy river was refreshing and magical. I loved our visit to the old “Beatles’ ashram with its gorgeous murals. Unfortunately my friend Louisa fell sick and decided to leave together with her partner. So here i was, on my way to the Himalayas, with people I have never seen in my life. I was to share a room for the following 2 weeks with a woman I had just met.. I don’t think I have done anything like this since I was on a summer camp at the age of 12! Our next stop was the town of Devprayang (godly confluence) – an important place for all Hindus, where river Alaknanda meets Bhagirati and officially becomes known as Ganga. I loved it all – cute little town, cows chilling on the suspension bridge, incredible night with a fire ceremony at the very point of confluence of the holy rivers.. and my hilarious roommate Christine who I was just starting to know. I fell in love with her as soon as she ate a mint placed on our bed in the hotel room – not realising it was a moth ball. We were laughing ever so hard and a new friendship was born.
Next morning saw us all cramming into our two little buses heading even further north on winding little roads all the way to our campsite in Chopta. The journey took hours and hours and sometimes it was just better not to look as we were going higher and higher, the deep drops seemed to be centimetres away from the bus. The temperature dropped as we gained altitude. Our cute tents were surprisingly – well, luxurious is probably too strong but – comfy for sure! Horses, cows and dogs wandering around, stunning views of the high snowy peaks while we did our morning yoga practice on the grass. Food was delicious and we even got some hot water in our pink plastic buckets (-: We stayed for a few nights and enjoyed hikes through blossoming rhododendron forests to various stunning locations – lakes, waterfalls (including a rather terrifying climb where I truly surprised myself by joining), impressive mountain temples. The nights were so cold we stayed fully dressed under our blankets. I only realised we were not the only inhabitants of our cute tent when something small and fury ran over my hair in the middle of the night. Fun! We took another long and winding ride from Chopta to Uttarkashi. I was laughing at my Canadian co-travellers when they were buying Cokes and KitKats but honestly.. after 7 hours on the bus Coca Cola was exactly what my stomach needed to settle!
From Uttarkashi we took another long drive to our final destination – Gangotri (the source of Ganga), stopping on the way in a stunningly beautiful village of Harsil at 2.700 m above sea level. Harsil is located on an old caravan trail from Tibet to India and on the 1st of May was full of blossoming apple trees. Enormous Himalayan vultures were flying face to face with us as our little bus trudged alongside the ravines. Traditional temples, lots of soldiers (army station due to its proximity to the Chinese border), turquoise Bhagirati river and countless cups of ever present super sweet chai. The air was crispy and the sun strong. Beautiful wool garments were sold on the street and luckily most of us got some – they were going to be needed rather soon. It felt like a fairytale. Our arrival to Gangotri got slightly dramatic as we entered an unexpected snow storm. Our hotel with no electricity was so cold that this time we slept in all our clothes, hats, and newly acquired scarves and gloves, in sleeping bags, and under 2 blankets. It was a hilarious sight to behold – reading ’Shantaram’ and “Second Half of Life’ in bed with our head torches on. The trip to the bathroom required serious determination! Next morning the sun was out and we practiced yoga and meditation in a magnificent spot on the cliffs of Bhagirati river.
We were resting and getting ready for the next day, our most difficult hike – 2 days, 36 km, from 3.100 to 4.000 masl to the source of river Ganga at Gomukh – the Gangotri glacier. We started in the morning and in the afternoon reached our overnight camp at 3.700 masl with a bit of headaches due to the altitude. The river was ice cold but we still did our daily dip. Food was delicious and the ground very hard to sleep on! Next morning it was sunny again and we took the last 4 km to the source of Ganga. It was the most powerful sight I have ever seen – the crystal clear water coming out of the mouth of the glacier. It was just our little group and powerful nature. The feeling of wonder and gratitude. Ice cold water and hot sun. Clean air, snowy mountains. I can’t even express how grateful I was. We stayed for couple of hours and then took our 18 km hike back down to Gangotri. We were exhausted but happy!
After a good nights sleep we were on the road again, slowly making our way back towards the ashram. We made another overnight stop in Uttarkashi and visited an amazing Sri Kashi Vishwanath temple. We were so happy to be back at the peaceful ashram after all of our adventures! Mandakini took us to 3 amazing goddess temples (Kali temple was truly astonishing!) and we closed our retreat with another fire ceremony on new moon.
I’ll be forever grateful for this wonderful experience and for getting to know a bunch of absolutely great people from around the globe. Thank you for being you!
This experience was surreal and I was only coming to terms with it during my flight home to Bali.
Wishing you well on YOUR next adventure!!!
Jarka